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This paper focuses on the move by some academic libraries to replace subject-based organisational structures with new functional structures, introducing functional specialists instead of subject librarians. It reports 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior managers in UK libraries discussing their attitudes to this change. Key drivers for change included the desire to align the library more closely with institutional strategy and provide enhanced research support. However, there were also major concerns, particularly the loss of close relationships with academic departments. Little consensus emerged apart from agreement that this is a major current debate impacting significantly on the future positioning of libraries in their institutions.

The problem that patrons frequently encounter with searching via a discovery layer linked to a knowledgebase is the overwhelming number of hits. Few if any research or discussion compares how libraries resolve this difficulty. To begin a discussion, the author disseminated an open invitation for academic libraries to participate on three panels from October 2018 to June 2019 to discuss their implementation processes and decisions. Five academic libraries accepted the invitation. This paper reviews the approaches of the five American academic library systems with the intent to encourage further examination of the issues of design, implementation, and maintenance of discovery layers. The conclusions reached point to the evolving nature of discovery layer interfaces and the struggle for libraries to adapt their needs to this still changing product type. Within this group, the larger institutions with more financial and staff resources have designed a ‘’bento box’’ interface with open source software, while the other institutions with lesser means have chosen to create different instances of their subscribed proprietary discovery layers to meet their specific institutional demands and the specific needs of their patrons. A statistically relevant examination with rigorous comparison of usability testing would have to be done to see how these and other factors play out in the wider field.

Reacting to the appearance of data-intensive research prompts academic libraries to become service providers for scholars, who work with research data. Although this is an imperative for libraries worldwide, due to the differences between countries and institutions, the level of readiness to engage in related activities differs from country to country. While some of the related tasks are fairly novel, others heavily build on librarians’ traditional, well-known skills. To identify these tasks, as well as making an inventory of the required skills and abilities, this paper, based on a non-exhaustive review of the recent literature, presents both theoretical and practical issues. It is demonstrated that the most obvious directions of the service development in academic libraries to support data-intensive science are research data management, data curation, data literacy education for users, and data literacy education for librarians.

The article reviews results of the surveying scientists employees of scientific centers of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - to study their information behavior. It reveals researchers’ preferences, peculiarities of their work with heterogeneous information and ways of its obtaining depending on a certain factor (status, age, area of knowledge, nature of activity, geographical location). The authors conclude on the need to renovate the information support system for research and development, and outline the strategy basic principles of developing the academic libraries scientific-information activities. The paper presents three-element model of information support for scientific research by the academic library.

The society development depends directly on the state and evolution of scientific environment, its organizational structures. Academic libraries play the leading role in academic communications, performing functions of informational centers, expanding significantly the field of researchers’ information activity and informational security. Libraries of the Russian Academy of Sciences experienced several stages in their development in 1992-2016, which was defined both by socio-political, socio-economic, legal transformations, and changes in the organizational-administrative model to manage scientific institutions in the country. The development of the library fund of scientific institutions passes several stages: · 1990s - stocks are formed mainly with traditional resources; · early 2000s - stocks structure includes remote access license resources along with traditional carriers; and open access resources - into the servicing system. The authors revealed main trends of stocks development based on results of a brief analysis of the library stocks formation of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS) in 1992-2016: the united fund created in previous decades breaks up into elements, is atomized, centripetal tendencies are replaced by centrifugal ones, the model of centralization changes, books’ share in the collection of traditional paper editions raises in stocks; it is observed a transition from the acquisition of printed versions of periodicals and special kinds of literature (standards, descriptions of inventions, etc.) to promoting their remote access; SB RAS’ resource base includes licensed electronic resources of remote temporary access and various types of open access scientific information to meet needs of scientists and specialists.